hour in that deadly vooift 50-mile-per-hour innocent. >> that's it for us. "morning joe." starts right now. >> reporter: we're down here at east battery, the scene is incredible. we have people walking along the wall. it is one of the dumbest things you can be doing right now t. water has been coming over the past couple of hours, it's only becoming worse by the minute. from the state of florida and been through a few hurricanes. i was not expecting this today as we continue to stay out here t. water will come into downtown charleston. if i can have my photographer show you right here. it's leak the ocean has come intoion town charleston. this is incredible. there is not a way to drive through this area. >> good morning, it is tuesday, september 12th. >> is that lewis walking up there? >> no ah, lewis. welcome to "morning joe." across the entire state of

florida this morning, we are beginning to get a sense of the damage left behind by hurricane irma as the storm continues. it's assault on the southeast. it has weakened to a post-tropical cyclone. millions in georgia and south carolina are without power and 'are cut off from their homes. in jacksonville, entire streets were swallowed by record flooding as heavy rain and storm surge hit the city t. mayor and local authorities asked people to hang white flags outside their homes as a signal for help. everglades city remains largely under water at this point. as of yesterday the main road in and out of everglades city was still impactable for anything but a big truck or boat. and much of the florida keys remain cut off from the mainland this morning as the national guard deploy search and rescue mission, hurricane irma made landfall in the keys sunday morning bringing 130-mile-per-hour winds, according to department of defense, as many as 10,000

people who sided to stay and ride out the storms may need to be evacuated. 8.8 million people are without power in florida. residents should be prepared for weeks without power in some cases. once irma moved past florida the storm made its way into georgia and south carolina, where at least deaths are blamed on the storm, mainly because of fallen trees. elsewhere, there was serious flooding. river streets in savannah saw the savannah river spill out its banks in the street usually bustling with stores and restaurants and charleston, which is usually prone to washouts because of its drain annual system saw its iconic market area downtown under water. let's bring in morgan radford, live from jacksonville. how does it look there this morning? >> reporter: joe, mika, good morning. you can see here where the storm

surge has moved in the streets of downtown jackson victim. this is the st. john's river. it kreftd over the river waters flowing into the streets this is as millions of people wake up without fire. people are wake up to no electricity, as the mares and governors were passing through, they were urging people to be especially careful today because of the downed power lines, downed debris. in puerto rico, we saw similar aftermaths. people were walking through, seeing things have been completely destroyed around them. then we moved to atlanta. people were opening emergency shelters. we moved to gainesville, people were stranded if their homes. finally in jacksonville, people are looking forward to how they can move through the week ahead

without power and water and to not be able to move through these impassable streets. >> bill. >> the st. john's river was ridiculous, it was like trifecta. here we are a day later. they are sitting at what would normally be their record flood level. this shows you how extremely high it was, never seen before by anyone alive in the jacksonville area. it was because of a foot of rain a. five-foot storm surge by a tropical storm. remember, it wasn't a hurricane. and it was also at high tide yesterday right around noon and just those three things all applied to the same time there in the st. john's river, here's the rainfall map. it was one to two feet. we were focused on the st. john's river. there is numerous other rivers that have problems there in northeast florida. even a couple outside of tampa. the water heights have reached their peak in all cases, it's one of the richs there along the

border with florida and georgia. that will drop. florida is kind of flat. it takes a while for it to go down like that. you can still see, we also talked about jose in the next couple days. sometimes in the '04 and '05 storms, it was one after:00 this one will not be a problem. it looks like it will curve out and head out to zee sea. 48 hours of damage from irma we can go back and stay at this journey, it was a hurricane for 12 day itself, of course, it was 185-mile-per-hour winds for 37 hours when it went through the leeward islands. the strongest ever. st. maartin and all of the hor risk images that we've seen, up to 80, 90% of the structures destroyed on those islands. reports as of yesterday, people searching for food, searching for water. then the storm as it went through the caribbean, nailed the turks and kay cost. then it went into a cat 5 into

northern cuba. the first time since 1924 cuba was hit by a cat 5 hurricane. florida can be thankful. if it wasn't for going into cuba, florida would have been hit by this as a cat 5 storm. it went through the keys as a cat 4. it was the first time in our recorded hurricane history, which goes back to 1851, we had two cat 4s make landfall in the same season in the u.s. so some amazing stats with the storm that will never be forgotten and that finally is done doing damage. >> so bill, obviously, this was one for the ages. >> that said. early sunday morning, where you saw it starting again to move towards the west coast of florida. anybody that knows florida knows the worst case scenario would have been if it had gone up into tampa as a cat 3/cat 4 but it

wasn't as bad. it wasn't as nightmarish as id could have been, right? >> we know they had a storm surge of 10 to 1514 feet. they had a possibility of a 10 to 1515 storm surge. >> that 10 to 15 feet if it had a jog would have headed into naples, sarasota and possibly the tampa area. yes, joe, it was literally a shift of 30 miles when the storm was a little further inland that saved the devastation we see in the keys from happening in the highly populated areas from southwest florida into tampa. >> bill, in your experience, do you recall a storm with such a damaging shelf life extending through days and hours and still

in a sense, you know, walloping, you know, georgia and south carolina? >> the fact might. it was a category 5 for three days. in the 185 mile winds we had. we never had a recorded storm that stayed at that intensity for 37 straight hours. that's kind of like off the charts-type stuff. the fact, i still don't think we heard all the stories an heartache that will come out of the caribbean. now that it's finally done doing damage in our country. now some of our resources can go towards showing you the stories of these beautiful resort towns that so many of us have visited to and been to don't exist the way we know them or knew them. >> we will check in with you later this morning. later this hour, we will be speaking with the mayor of jacksonville and the record

flooding in his city. around the table, we have veteran columnist and ms nbc contributor mark barnacle, professor at michigan, democratic congressman harold ford jr., co-founder and ceo of axios, jim vand high and author of the book "a world in disarray," richard haase. and in washington, senior political analyst for ms nbc mark halperin, a lot of politics to talk about this morning. ly start with the interview that ousted white house strategy steve bannon gave to "60 minutes." we played a few clips last week. cbs running the bulk on sunday night. perhaps the most interesting part of the sit-down was material they left for a web extra, where bannon said president trump's decision last may to fire fbi director james comey is by far trump's most

damaging self inflicted wound. >> someone said to me that you described the firing of james comey, you are a student of history, as the biggest mistake in political history. >> that would probably be too bombastic for me but maybe modern political history. i don't think there is any doubt if james comey had not been fired, we would not have a special counsel, yes. >> we would not have the mueller investigation. >> we would not have the mueller investigation. we would not have the mueller investigation in the breath that clearly mr. mueller is going. i don't believe that the institutional logic of the fbi and particularly in regards to an investigation could possibly change by changing out the head of it. >> it has been reported that jared kushner was in favor of firing james comey. is that correct? >> you'd have to -- you will have to find that out through the media or investigation. i don't know. >> over, bannon would not say

directly whether he, himself, was against firing comey out of respect for private conversations. instead, pointed to media reports that he was quote adamantly opposed. yesterday, when asked about bannon's criticism, white house press senior ra huckaby sanders stood firmly behind the president's decision. >> certainly, i think it has been shown in the days that follow thad the president was right if firing director comey since director's firing, we have learned new information about his conduct that only provided further justification for that firing, including giving false testimony, leaking privileged information to journalists. he went outside of the chain of command and politicized an investigation into a presidential candidate. >> so, mark, it's hard to tell exactly who steve bannon's comments were aimed at. perhaps, if not the president, jared kushner, who was also reportedly the only other person

other than the president in support of fearing james comey. i thought it was also interesting steve bannon said he would be against the firing of muller. probably for the same reasons, he was correctly against the firing of james comey. what's it all mean? >> look, there are a lot of similarities between bannon and trump. two things that they share, one is they like to become, they like to be seen as smart political analysts. i think a lot of what bannon said in that interview was his view of the truth and smart analysis. a lot of reporters would agree the president's decision to fire comey the way he fired him, in particular, was a big mistake t. other thing about bannon and trump they shared i think is sometimes overrated. they are both ideological in a sense. they are at times practical. they don't roll boulders uphill if they can't get to the top of the hymn. i think a lot of what bannon

said in that interview reflects as realistic. some of that stuff was realistic a. realism he shares with the president in some cases. >> and jim, you have, again, the only two people and we get these reports in real time, we didn't have to see steve bannon talk about this in 60 minutes, this was the case t. only people that were for the firing of james comey, the way he was fired, was donald trump and jared kushner. >> no doubt. an there was lots of tension between bannon and kushner that at that point. it was the breaking point in their relationship. >> so bannon is probably say, you are where you are today with mueller, mr. president, because you listened to jared kushner. >> i'm one of the reporters who would agree with that mark hal perr halperin said. now you have mueller with the firing of james comey, one of the reasons mike pence hired a

lawyer. it's the reason that six or seven white house officials had to hire lawyers, because they were in and around those conversations at that time and maybe donald trump wasn't trying to cover something up by firing him, but there are so many conversations he had with people about the investigation around that time and his frustration with comey. that's where mueller is intensely focused at this moment. it could become probably problematic, that bannon is fearing that it could end the presidency. >> this news comes, all of this is about jared kushner. when i say that, i'm saying steve bannon talking about comey and saying that decision led to mueller and is leading to all the problems donald trump has is steve bannon saying, you should have listened to me instead of listening to the guy who is still in the white house. you listen to him and now you got this, you are trapped in this legal hell. >> a family thing.

>> this comes as there is more news this morning. >> right. >> about jared kushner. >> so a new report claims that lawyers representing president trump in the russia probe wanted his son-in-law jared kushner to step down as senior adviser earlier this summer. the wheat journal cites anonymous people familiar with the matter said some on the liam team worried about complication from the special counsel's russia probe. the concerns included kushner's dealing with russian officials and business people during the campaign and transition, some who are now being examined by federal investigators and congress. also included, kushner's omission of contacts with foreign officials from his security clearance form, which he amended twice. and there was worry about the spread of risk that if kushner mentioned the probe, even casually in a meeting, aide was heard his remarks could face inquiries from robert mueller's agents. and there was reportedly concern

that kushner might discuss the probe with the president, without a lawyer present. the report claims that press aides to the legal team went as far as drafting a statement to explain kushner's resignation. the trump attorney john dowd, who joined the legal team in june leads it says he felt the proposal absurd and he never to his knowledge has taken to the president. marc kasowitz who led the legal team until july said in a statement, i never discussed with other lawyers that jared kushner should step down. i never recommended to the president jared kushner should step down. aam not aware other lawyers made such recommendation. >> all the president's lawyers are denying it. >> denying a lot. >> there is something they've denied a lot there they are kind of in -- >> in between sending inappropriate e-mails. >> and curse words, so, yeah. >> so, mike, this is something that people have talked about

for some time in the white house, jared kushner may be better for jared kushner but everybody in the white house if he went back to new york and got out of the white house, because of, of a lot of things that have gone on since the transition. >> well, never mind what mueller is probing about jared kushner, just the public paper trail of jared kushner in 669 madson avenue, the building he paid too much for, he has been trying to refinance for some time now. that's just one item. the other item is, you know, who has he spoken to about these difficulties from the meeting with donald judgment trump jr., with the woman from russia, to talking to the president when he was president. i mean, what is going on here? everybody having to lawyer up after they talked to jared kushner? >> i mean, harold, he's not good at disclosure, disclosure forms, not with people he's met, with

financial stakes he has in things. he's been very sloppy and in part because everybody was shock thad they won and donald trump basically said here, charge everything, go off here, charge the world, you are in charge of redoing government. are you in charge of these other things, going 24 hours a day, not making any excuses for him, i'm just saying it was just sheer chaos. but in that chaos, a lot of stuff was overlooked. a lot of stuff that has very dire complications legally. >> i don't know of a campaign in history and richard can give some perspective on this that had repeated conversations and outreach to russian government officials. i cannot think of a benign reason during a campaign. i can be wrought. i'd love to hear the fact. we will learn that through mueller's investigation. to your point, you and i have had a lot of disclose years in government. i don't know how you forget that many meetings. >> you don't forget, though.

>> you purposely omit them. >> you don't forget. okay. i met with somebody from chad. like at a cocktail party four months ago, i might have forgotten that. nothing against chad. but it's into the in the newspaper every day, right? right? >> but at trump tower. a russian conference table. >> if have you russia. >> come to you. >> in the broad pages of the nurngs during the campaign, if people are accusing russia of trying to steal the election, if afterwards you get a national security adviser, a guy that's going to be national security adviser in trouble because he didn't report russian meetings. this is like, we've heard more about russia than like we have been sitting through a constant james bond movie. you don't forget that harold. >> these are difficult things to forget. not only that, there were

several dozen contacts and breaches. in addition, mike pence was lied to about mike flynn about russia. at the end of the day that led to his ouster. just to reenforce your point. >> i will say on september 12th, 2017, mike pence tells us. >> correct. >> he was lied to about russia. and i think from now on, any time somebody says mike pence was lied to, if we don't want to look really stupid in the future, we should say mike pence says. >> he was lied to. >> he was lied to. >> you know, you put your finger on part of this solving the equation, because gary kushner and a lot else in the sense when he was meeting with several of the russians, when they had these meeting, we don't know who he was talking to from russia. they didn't think they were going to win. >> right. >> they didn't think they were going to within. they didn't think this would be an issue. they'd cash in on their moment of fame running for president and physical out a way to get

themselves out of trouble. >> out of financial trouble. again not that we have working knowledge of this. but everybody now knows 666 fifth avenue is under water. they need money. they have been going around hat in hand trying to get money. chances are very good. they didn't think they were going to win. they are going around building contacts. donald trump wanted to build a big building in mass co-. i don't blame him. he's a developer. not in the middle of the campaign. let's switch subjects. >> we have to go to break. >> quickly, i want to get your take, it's fascinating, everywhere i've gone, people have talked about donald trump's sort of shift with what happened last week. the tweets have slowed down. they are even keeled, if you compare them to tweets in the past. organization inside the white house seems to be steadier than it has been in quite some time.

and the president meeting -- is it tonight he's meeting. >> tomorrow night. heidi -- jim manchin. >> democrats you can get over to your side. it's fascinating. what do you make of the shift that is at least lasted for five, six days now? >> plus the two trips to texas. in many ways, it's been the best and almost normal. a week, ten days of the trump presidency and what everybody is asking is whether it was you know a one-time thing a one off or whether this is the shift the pivot whatever you want to talk about that people have been talking about for years on whether this can be institutionalized on taxes on infrastructure, on essentially the entire again da that awaits them? and that's the question that's sitting out there. i don't know. you don't know. but people are hoping, because he clearly can't govern the old way. i think health care showed. that so people are hoping this

is more than that. >> my apology the denner is tonight. can you also add in this could be the kelly factor, which may be unsustainable, but it certainly appears to be the best turn of events. >> the past five, six, seven days i think have been not only for a lot of americans, but a lot of people across the world has been a chance for people to catch their breath. and i loved. i think it was saturday morning, maybe it was friday or saturday, i love the quote in axios in the newsletter, donald trump looked around and he said, man, everybody hates my guts. >> hates my guts. >> and he came to the conclusion, i'm going to stop doing things that make people hate my guts, like i can say this, though, this is really important for everybody to know, you know my republican party. you were there in '94, '95.

we would constantly be junk off the cliff, constantly driving the car into the wall, constantly dying at every barricade. >> that is a food way to get to 33, 34, 35%. i think donald trump looked at the republican party and said i'm not going to keep jumping off the cliff with them. at the same time their solution is always fight, fight, fiemt, fight. >> the one important caveat, who knows if the new trump sticks. he was able to do it on two things, one, there is only one thing you do when there is a disaster. you spend the money necessary. >> right. it's not hard. >> then two the deal he struck with democrats, he gave democrats 100% of what they want. you will not have opportunities where you fully surrender and declare victory. maybe he can do it on taxes and infrastructure. the democrats are under tremendous pressure to fought give him any wins, now he got himself in a box where he and mcconnell really, really dislike

each other. >> i heard people will be saying that donald trump is in a box. donald trump's out of the box. donald trump's out of the box where. >> a different box. >> i have to go to repub -- no, he's a free agent now. he doesn't have to go to mitch mcconnell, hey, i'd really like an infrastructure bill, is that okay? no, you got 535 people on capitol hill. can you start picking them off. >> that's a big if. you are assuming democrats will vet for something -- >> democrats will not follow nancy pelosi and chuck schumer blindly, they will do what's in the best interest of their district f. there is an infrastructure bill that helps them in their district. heidi hydecamp, claire mccaskill. there are a lot of people that say give me legislation i can vote with the president on so i can go to my voters next 84 and say i was with the president when he has good ideas. >> it's good for red state

democrats, don't understand the pressure they will be under to not give donald trump -- there i don't disagree with you, if his poll numbers go up, he will get more of what he wants. people talk about tip o'neill and ronald reagan got along. one of the reasons is ronald reagan's numbers were high. it was one of the great smart polls. if you see the gorsuch coalition, they will work particularly on tax reform. >> i agree. >> still ahead on ""morning joe,"" china and russia joined the u.n. security council if slapping north korea with a new round of sanctions after its latest nuclear test. we will talk to richard haase. also, congressman jim jordan joins us after freedoms are looking for a new speaker. j.r. peters with his reporting on the gop could be on the verge of shattering and spawning a

third party. we continue to follow the aftermath of hurricane irma. we will talk to the mayor of jacksonville, florida, in his city and get an update on efforts to restore power there. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

>> the united nations has passed a fresh sanctions on north korea. in a unanimous vote the security council passed a vote that didn't include oil assets both of which russia and coin objected to. what does it do? it bans pyongyang from natural gas and crude imports. here's what ambassador nikki halle told the council yesterday. >> these are, by far the strongest measures ever imposed

on north korea. they give us a much better chance to halt the regime's ability to fuel and finance its nuclear and missile programs. but we all know these steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively. >> so, richard, do you agree with nikki haley, were those the toughest sanctions imposed by the u.n.? >> they are the toughest sanctions imposed against north korea. they won't make a difference. >> they won't make a difference? >> no, for all sorts of reasons, they were watered down, they have the ability to substitute domestic production, if you have it cut off, they can liquify coal, there is a story how russia is end running sanctions, increasingly filming in some of the gap that china has left. but north korea's entire psychology the dna as self reliance, so the idea that you will sanction them into giving up what they think are the most important assets for the

regime's survival, ain't going to happen. even if this were much more, it would not make it a strategic -- >> richard, it sounds like you continue to say and by the way i agree with you, others do not. we don't have a thousand different options, there is into the me third way. by me saying that, i'm not saying i'm for the military option. but i am saying you're either for north korea having the ability to strike seattle, san francisco and los angeles with nuclear weapons in the next year or two or you're for military intervention to take the weapons away or to change the regime. it seems to me the sooner we get to that. okay. with all due respect, with others talking about the glorious things that will happen in afghanistan, if you trip testimony number of troops, you

knew it was garbage back then. you knew it would be a holding pattern, here, there is no neat, clean third way. >> there is not a third way and the time line of the north korean missile dance is far faster than the time line of every impact of sanctions kicking in. so we're kidding ours if we think what's going on at the u.n. is somehow going to solve this problem. >> will the chinese ever step in? >> they will step in, in part, not enough. china will not step in to the point that they risk destabilization. >> what if china thinks we will go in militarily, will that then mean? they understood that the united states was coming in militarily if they didn'ting a. will china then act and remove him? >> i don't think so. i think they will try to manage this situation. they would have certain limits on what they will be willing to sit aside for. i do not believe at the end of the day they would solve this.

>> so china would rather us be in there militarily than take out a guy destabilizing the whole region? it would be like us wanting the chinese to come into mexico? >> the idea that chosen has this option that you are talking about, to put in someone more to their liking, they don't believe as best as i can tell they have that option. >> richard, richard, richard, you don't believe that a country that controls 90% of the imports to north korea and gets 90% of their export, you don't think they have every general and leadered around that guy bought and paid for? >> proof that they don't. it was his uncle china's man in north korea. china is very frustrated about what they can't control in north korea. this is a typical relationship between unequals where the

chinese despise north kreerns, they see them as a liability not an asset. they cannot control what's going on there. >> coming up -- >> if there was regime change is there they would like a north korea just like china. they would love that if they could bring that about i expect they will. >> okay. coming up, hillary clinton says there is no doubt in her mind that russian president vladimir putin wanted donald trump to win the election. she says she is quote convinced that there was collusion by trump associates. usa today susan page spoke exclusively with the 2016 nominee. susan joins us next on "morning joe." haven't you ever wanted something more barry? watch your step. a pilot like you should be flying for the c.i.a. holy- shh...

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the forces that were at work in 2016 were unlike anything that i've ever seen or read about. it was a perfect storm. >> 11 days before -- >> 11 days before the election. it raised the spectre that somehow the investigation was being reopened. it just stopped my momentum. now remember this, too, jane, at the same time he does that, about a closed investigation, there's an open investigation

into the trump campaign and their connections with russia. you never hear a word about it. >> so joining us now, walk bureau chief for usa today susan page who spoke exclusively with hillary clinton. good to have you on board, let's keep the first question to mark halperin. >> halperin. >> susan, you lead this story with a hillary clinton suspicion or certainty that associates of donald trump colluded. what everyday did she offer for that? >> she offered the tangle of financial relationships that have come to light, the meetings now being disclosed. she says she has come to this conclusion with more certainty since the book was written, since she had to send the book into the publisher. she also says that there is more to learn that we will find out more between the russians in this campaign.

she says this is possible. she says it may be true, that even voter rolls were affected or revised by hackers or voting returns affected. those are things she says deserve more investigation. >> and susan, from a macro point of view, did she write the book for attention, to make money, to have her voice out there? what is motivating her to do this? >> i think she wanted to settle some scores with bernie sanders and others and i think she was also wounded by the result of this election. she thought she was going to win this election and be president-elect and president. she said it was catharctic to go through the process of writing this book in this house they bought this guest house they bought with the idea of it willing used by the secret service for the president. >> did she offer advice moving forward? >> she offered advice, done pay

attention to bernie sanders, he is not a democratic and doesn't have democratic interests at heart, there are two people that get under her skin, one is bernie sanders, the other is james comey. >> oh. >> what is it? >> i'm surprised in the coverage of the book how she comes you've as so anythingly, bernie sanders, think deeper into that, what is it they'rerytates her about him. how can she come to the conclusion he's not the face of the democratic party within it seems to be the face of the democratic party often exists? >> i think for one thing, she believes that his ahacks on her integrity for giving those wall street speeches during that period of time before the campaign. >> she gave them. >> it was bad optics. >> how does that reflect on bernie? what did he do? >> he attacked her. >> what is wrong with bernie sanders? what is wrong with him as a

candidate that she had to say, because that really is talking about something she did that was perhaps poorly reflecting on her choices, what is it about bernie sanders that bothered her? >> two things, donald trump's attacks on crooked hillary. she says the proposals he made were appealing to voters didn't add up, couldn't be implemented. it made him the school mom and her the -- >> democrats can propose more, it is true whatever she proposed, bernie would say, oh, wait, oh, no, we are giving it to you for free and a few car. so what say this? >> that i would take issue with is policies. >> which is where the democratic party seems to be going. so what does she do next? we herd she was talking about

ministry, is she going to write more books? what is she looking at? >> she says she will not run for office. which is a relief some thought it was a come-back strategy. she wants to be a part of the debate. she is starting this groups, work with grass roots organizations. there are, in fact, an awful lot of americans who voted for her and might want to hear her voice. >> a lot of people love her. >> maybe want her to run again. >> she says she won't run again, i don't think that's an amgs,b some parts of the book are poignant, like having to put away the outfit she had chosen for her victory speech, because there wasn't a victory speech. but it's clear she sees, once again, eleanor roosevelt as her modem. which is something that goes back to her days as first lady,

eleanor roosevelt continued to speak out even after fdr died and she declined to run for office. >> was there sing e anything she shed she should have done differently? >> yes, not having a private e-mail server. sheing a only ins that was pretty much a mistake. >> that it was, usa today susan page, thank you so much. we gaitly appreciate it. still ahead this morning, we got the "washington post" john costas, he will join us with his latest recording. we will speak about the city's mayor talking about flooding from irma. we are back if just a moment.

have you ever seen anything like this? >> no. not this bad. i've been through some hurricanes. i was born and raised in florida, but this is i have never seen the river like this. it was cresting through here like we were out in the ocean. >> i did not expect to see this at all. okay, flooding. okay. no big deal, but these were waves.

i was like is this the ocean or a river? >> joining us, the mayor of jacksonville, florida. give us an update on the situation facing your city right now, mr. mayor. >> sure, good morning. we had a tropical storm irma that came through. data we got yesterday morning, the information was we were facing category 3 hurricanes now storm surge. so we had mandatory evacuations underway for the areas heavily impacted. unfortunately some folks were still in the areas. we moved quickly yesterday morning and deployed rescue teams, our first responders, secured state assets and they were able to go in and do their jobs. 15 neighborhoods, no fatalities reported at this point. >> mayor, the waters will recede eventually, but the damage done to jacksonville and other cities in the state of florida, how

long do you anticipate realistically it will be before the city is able to get back up on its feet and sustain it the way we are used to seeing jacksonville? >> look, we went through matthew last year. this is much more widespread than matthew. there was a much bigger public safety risk in this given the day after the storm began to leave, but we are tough. the federal government, the president reached out to the governor, the president's team reached out to us on the front end to ensure that we get the federal help that we need and the state help that we need. i would just say the way our people acted quickly yesterday to save people's lives is how we're going to respond to recover and rebuilding. >> so you got -- you got what you needed from the federal government, the state government, everybody has been responsive? >> on the front end we got the commitments up front from the president and his team, and i me

he's spoken to the governor and governor scott has been just unbelievable in managing this and setting expectations, and frankly, delivering results through the crisis. >> all right. hard? >> mr. mayor, i listened to the governor who has done a really good job here. he talked about prepositioning assets. in light of the fact in order to be able to help with the recovery, did you have enough prepositioned assets to deal with the record breaking and surprising amount of water? >> yeah. as we begin to rebuild, assets were secured on power outages well in advance. the efforts yesterday, frankly, were all about rescue. we did not shift to recovery yesterday. and i am so proud of our first responders to say that the city delivered on the rescue efforts. and part of that was securing

assets via the governor. they sent in rescue assets to help us as well. they were here yesterday morning on a moment's notice, and now the assets to rebuild and recover. i'm just grateful and thankful that everybody stepped up and we were able to get people out of those zones that had chosen to stay when the flood waters came in. >> the jacksonville mayor, thank you very much. good luck to you. >> thank you. all right. let me ask richard and jim, how you guys have to head after this. what are you looking at today? what's the story people should be focussed on? what are you going to be focusing on? >> i want to watch what this administration does with iran. if you look at nikki haley's speech, they're suggesting ch j charging iran with noncompliance and they could open up a new crisis in the middle east. >> does that mean they're going to try to break the iran deal?

>> or find a way to introduce a new wave of sanctions saying iran is not come plying. >> what's the purpose of that? what's the strategic advantage of that? zl there is no strategic advantage of it. iran is for the most part complying with the nuclear deal. the problem is everything else iran is doing. >> even if you hated the iran deal, there is no strategic reason, you believe right now, to undermine. >> i don't think there's a legal or strategic reason, the conversation we had five minutes ago about north korea. every once in a while you have to show discipline. >> and domestically? >> if you put aside the storms, lots to sort through in terms of donald trump. you have the dinner including some democrats. steve bannon in china continuing to go at the president of the america first side. mitch mcconnell gave an interesting interview south new york times where he's saying he got suckered on the deal with the democrats.

it's a big moment for the republican party as it sorts through what does it mean to be a republican in the age of donald trump. >> how fascinating bannon. if bannon hadn't gone on ' 60 minutes, steve bannon is driving negative coverage. >> jared kushner. >> he wants kushner out. but he's hurting the president at the same time. >> my understanding is he was playing to the president. he was defending the president. the president loves that stuff. his whole happy trump stuff. he loves the warrior in bannon, and bannon knows in the long game you're out one day and you're the hero the next. >> he's still talking to bannon, right? >> yes. the white house said one yesterday, it's more extensive. >> thank you both for being on this morning. ahead we'll talk to republican congressman jim jordan of the white house freedom caucus. he is blaming his own party for

president trump's debt ceiling deal with democrats. and peter alexander with more on the president's bipartisan dinner at the white house tonight, and we'll check back in with bill karins as he assesses the lasting effects from irma, a 12 -day hurricane. "morning joe" is coming right back. but if that's not enough, we offer our price match guarantee too. and if that's not enough... we should move. our home team will help you every step of the way. still not enough? it's smaller than i'd like. we'll help you finance your dream home. it's perfect. oh, was this built on an ancient burial ground? okay... then we'll have her cleanse you house of evil spirits. we'll do anything, (spiritual chatter) seriously anything to help you get your home. ally. do it right.

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order will be restored to florida. the pentagon warned last night that they may need to evacuate 10,000 people who road out the storm in the keys. with the island cut off and the national guard deploying search and rescue missions. yesterday florida's two senators did a flyover together with the coast guard over their home state looking at the scope of the damage. the storm has weakened to a post tropical cyclone, but 7.5 million people in florida, georgia, and the carolinas are without power this morning. tab by island was rendered unreachable as the storm surge surpassed that of mast ytthew l year and the town's 911 system is not working. the mayor tot had to helicopter in. and in south carolina with the stately houses, water splashed over railings flooding out the

historic streets. let's go straight to bill karins for the latest. >> we're done with the damage. that's the good part of this. and now we can sit back and see where all the worst images, who needs the most help. that includes our island friends because the path of destruction was incredible as it moved 11 to 12 days over a hurricane. for three of the days it was a category 5 hurricane. that's when the worst damage was. i haven't even seen that many pictures of the turks and caicos. they went through the northern eye for about eight hours. those are the pictures from barbuda. that's when the storm was at its stronger. gusts probably 220 miles per hour. the island looks like a strong tornado ripped through it. and just you can't even imagine what living in those conditions day after day is going to be like. it's been about a weekend since the storm hit there, and they were lucky jose didn't make it

worse, you can see the pictures. incredible. those images are from the vir v virg virgin islands. it's incredible. and then i mentioned the turks and caicos, and then the storm went into cuba. we've seen the damaged pictures from florida and how bad it was. cuba took a direct land fall from a category 5 hurricane for the first time since 1924. if it wasn't for a weakening over cuba, i have no doubts irma would have removed a strong category 5 straight into the southern portions of florida including fort myers and naples. the only reason we don't have pictures like barbuda is because what it did to cuba. and we haven't even seen all the pictures. the cuba keys where it made land fall, we haven't seen the pictures yet. the last report i heard the one

bridge that goes out there was destroyed and they're going by boat to try to get to people. t stiit's still a developing situation. as we get updates here, georgia about 1.5 million people lost power and about 5 million people lost power in areas of florida. and i still get a lot of people asking a ton of questions. this is jose. still a hurricane. the forecast looks ominous. it looks like it's heading for areas of the east coast. our long range computers are taking it out to sea. i'm not concerned with jose at this time. now we just have to deal with the recover in florida and georgia. >> thank you. and later we'll go live to the florida keys to see the damage firsthand. with us now onset, we have mike barnicle. harold ford junior, alise

jordan, nick confisori, mark halperin, and robert costa. >> mark, we're going to dive into all the political news, but first i want to ask you what i actually asked jim before he left at the end of last hour. what what are you looking at at the beginning of this week? it's a fascinating time. republicans are trying to recover from the deal struck last week. donald trump actually seems to have his head down more than he has in the 7 1/2, eight months he's been in the white house. and actually he's taking a meeting with democratic senators from red states tonight. this looks like his effort to keep reaching across the aisle and actually turning his back on mitch mcconnell. it looks like that's continuing. >> i think the most important thing for the president is the most important thing for real

americans which is can washington do anything to make the real lives of real people better. it starts with is there a formula on tax reform. one of the first times the president has tried to actually build a reagan-like coalition of most or all republicans bridging two more centrist democrats. is there a formula for a tax plan that can actually satisfy the needs of conservatives but also win some democratic votes. it doesn't look like he's trying to make a tax deal with lots of democrats and go to the kind of coalition he hinted at last week, but rather what president reagan did. republicans and a new symbolic democrats. president bush did the same thing. i believe that there's still solving a lot of things. revenue neutrality. are they going to cut the top rate for the wealthiest americans as much as the president onlily proposed. and what are they going to do about deductions. can they pass a tax bill? if they don't this year, i think

republicans go into the midterms into an unprecedented situation. >> and bob costa, it sounds like donald trump is really, again, tonight's another example of how he's basically telling the republicans i gave you seven and a half months, you had seven years, and i sat back waiting for you to establiaccomplish so. you got nothing. i'm going to do this myself. is that his mind set. >> one of the interesting things here is the process for tax reform hasn't caught up with the dynamics capitol hill. the president and allies are trying to move forward and reach out to red state democrats. when i'm at the capital talking to leader, they say only the republicans are dominating this process. they're not including democrats into the tax reform process in the same way the president is in

the early conversations with democrats. if the dynamic changes you may see a deal. but ryan and his allies want to really protect their own approach at this point. >> and nick, the thing is if he can get most of the republicans on a tax bill, and then you even give somebody like claire mccaskill an opportunity to run for reelection saying yeah, i voted for donald trump's tax bill. i don't like all the tweets and all the crazy stuff he does, but if he's going to give me a bill that helps small businesses in missouri, or missouri, depending on what siede of the state you'e campaigning on, then yeah, i'll support the guy. there are ten democrats this that position that would love to have a bill that they could say we're going along. they're not going to do it if it's a bill that paul ryan drafted or mitch mccconnell, because it's not going to look like anything a democrat could

support. >> look, after six months of white nationalists and deportation and north korea tax reformers like the valium of politics right now, it's so much less toxic in so many ways. there aren't thousands of people who are going to march on washington over tax reform or protest on tax reform. there's a chance for democrats to try to work with them on the margins without getting totally slammed by their own party. i think if it was any other issue, it would be very hard to do that. >> the challenge of handling hurricane irma is having an impact on the schedule in washington. tomorrow's senate knew dish ri committee on daca shielding young undocumented immigrants is being postponed indefinitely due to the executive branch's request to deal on hurricane response. meanwhile the white house chief of staff has responded to democratic congressman of illinois who called him a, quote, disgrace to the uniform

he used to wear. over the daca decision. in an e-mail to fox news he wrote as far as the congressman and other irresponsible members of congress are concerned, they have the luxury of saying what they want as they do nothing and have almost no responsibility. they can call people liars but it would be inappropriate for me to say the same thing back at them. as my blessed mother used to say, empty barrels make the most noise. the congressman has a right to his opinion. >> mike barnicle, where do we begin? i served with the congressman and like him personally, but where do we begin? >> he should be ashamed of himself. >> talk about the disgraceful outrageous words used against a man who has given his entire life and his son to this country in service and uniform. >> he should be ashamed of himself and should apologize j

but he won't because of the polarized nature of washington d.c. the chief of staff kelly resides. he's right. the congressman belongs to a body of people who work maybe two hours a week. they're going to work legislatively, i think, what? four days this month. the remainder of the month to get things done. they've had daca on their desks for over a year and have done nothing. and that's his rhetoric? please. stop it. >> mean white in the interview we've been discussing steve bannon is claiming that president trump's decision to, quote, revisit the order protecting undocumented people up to six months will create an uprising during next year's republican primaries and put the republican majority at risk. >> i'm worried about losing the house now because of daca. and my fear is that with the six months down range, if we have another huge -- if this goes all the way down toward logical conclusion in february and march, it will be a civil war

inside the republican party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013. and to me, doing that in the spring board of primary season for 2018 is unwise. >> well, 2013 actually led to almost all the tea party candidates challenges in 2014 losing. it was the most moderated -- 2013 and the shutdown led to the most moderating election in 2014 for the republicans. so, alise, steve bannon says that if the president moves forward on daca, he'll create a revolution inside the republican party despite the fact that 75% of donald trump supporters actually don't want him to deport d.r.e.a.m.ers, and 80% of americans don't want him to deport d.r.e.a.m.ers. him going along with democrats again on daca? that's good politics even inside donald trump's party, isn't it? >> and it's what the country wants. steve bannon trying to create

this civil war within the republican party, and challenge republicans. you look at what happened with paul ryan, and i think the last time they tried to do this, ryan won by 64 points or something ridiculous. and so i just don't think that steve bannon is going to carry as much juice going into all of these primaries as he thinks he will. >> and mark halperin now steve bannon is targeting a lot of republicans, apparently bob corker and i don't know, the list goes on. right? >> yeah. i mean, look. the relationship between the president and mitch mcconnell is going to have to have some basis to go forward if he's going to get anything done. mcconnell controls the senate floor, and there's probably literally nothing that would make mitch mcconnell more angry than the notion the president's political team is trying to create primaries for incumbents. republicans are in a good position to keep the senate because of the seats are up.

that would be complicated by primaries. it would be expensive and in some cases republicans could lose to less electable candidates. what bannon is talking about, that alone is just a huge problem for republicans in the short term and maybe for the second half of donald trump's term in office. >> look, i agree with mark. i think that bannon is a lot smarter than we think. i hear the numbers and i hope the numbers are -- i hope the numbers are what you're saying. there's something to what he's saying. he's either going to be proven right -- >> about what? the civil war? >> yes. right or wrong. i hope he's proven wrong. i think the path the president is on could make it where he's proven to be wrong. there are a number of republicans outside of the enclaves that we love and live in, and we understand other parts of the country, but he has to be proven wrong before we can

say that he is wrong. i hope that he is. i'm not convinced yet he will be. >> bob costa, how does the daca fight play out? does it lead to a civil war in the republican party? >> i was doing a call around yesterday to my sources. if you step back and think of this bannon statement on '60 minutes", he's laying down a marker for where the republicans stand. self deport, they have to leave. by having bannon articulate the position, it makes it almost easier to cut a deal. now the leadership say bannon is out there saying this. we have to at least include border security to keep the base happy, maybe not a physical wall. this is how deals are made. bannon always starts at the extreme. that doesn't mean that's where daca will end up, but they know where the marker is for the republican base. we know president trump probably really likes what we heard from steve bannon the other evening, his defense of

the president and the president's actions and the president's behavior. but you followed the president now for a long, long time. you have great sources within the administration. do you think that president trump trusts steve bannon? >> it's not so much a relationship about trust. it's a relationship of mutual power, mutual power share, and they both know they represent this element of the base. the president is aware that bannon channels his own base. that doesn't mean bannon is someone who is a confidant on every issue he's calling every night. it's a different type of relationship. this relationship is not personal so much as political. and the president as much as he can be distracted on different fronts, he is a political animal who understands who he needs to get his objectives done. >> the thing is, and i think people have made the mistake from the beginning of puffing

steve bannon up. steve bannon exists as a public figure, and is on '60 minutes "because she's known how to ride in donald trump's wake for five, six months, nine months. maybe it's been a year. i don't know how long. he got there at the end of the campaign. i just -- steve bannon will be out front for as long as steve bannon sort of gives everybody the perception that he's strong and powerful and that he has this huge base. the second he crosses donald trump, he will find out like everybody else that they follow donald trump. donald trump, that fifth avenue thing that he said about shooting somebody? true. if steve bannon shot somebody on fifth avenue, he'd be in jail in two minutes. and t one of the craziest things. steve bannon was the architect of donald trump.

no. he didn't need him until the end of the campaign, but steve bannon would say i'm going to give you access, and i'm the architect. even people inside the white house. it's like well, you know, it's steve bannon's idea to get working class americans -- that was donald trump. i mean, donald trump's been speaking this way since 19 88 and steve bannon still has people believing that he was the great puppet master. it's one of the most remarkable con jobs i've seen in modern american history. and i salute him for that. >> and there are a lot of con jobs going on here. >> i think bob costa is right. he said it better than i can. this is the marker and democrats and others, if you don't want to go down the crazy lane, you have to negotiate with them. >> at the end of the day president trump knows that he doesn't owe his election to steve bannon. i think that says it all. president trump has the political judgment to know that he alone got himself elected to

the white house. paul manafort might have secured the nomination, but he got himself to the white house. and roger stone calls steve bannon a paper tiger with all the threats that what's actually ever going to materialize? >> steve bannon is a smart guy. there's no doubt about it. and he has a following. but when you start talking about how donald trump has to follow steve bannon or else, that's when it becomes a con job. >> i agree. >> finally, i do just want to say, mark, bannon could be helping the president putting more pressure on the right to actually come up with a deal that, yes, the president will do a deal with daca, with the democrats, and a lot of republicans, but you're going to have to have tough border enforcement, not a wall. but you're going to have to get tough border enforcement and

other things that not only conservatives but a lot of independents and moderates in the country want. >> you don't see a lot of calls for high minded compromise on breitbart. bannon has ideas. and policy positions about being a post republican, post democrat. his source is a strength primarily are the money of the mercers who are big donors. i think his biggest leverage is even with minority views on things like daca, if you're a house republican, breitbart, more than drudge, more than fox news, can stir up things in your world and create the impression that if you don't do what breitbart wants to do, you're going to have trouble. to me, that's the main source of his strength right now. it differentiates him from lots of people with ideas ant populism. the white house will have to grapple with it if there are primaries? . >> i don't think he's picking a fight with trump. i think he's pushing himself as

the keeper of the true faith for trump followers, and his job in his mind, i believe, is to try to remind the president of who he's supposed to be in bannon's eyes and to make the agenda steve bannon has the president's agenda. with breitbart and the interview on "60 minutes". his job is not to say the president is making a mistake. the true thing the president should be doing is this. and he's pretty effective at this. >> the problem is that that's the only direction the president went for 6 1/2 months. it's why he's sitting at 35%. if he's a pull toward that, that's fine, but if that's all donald trump does, he's going to be sitting in the 30s. >> all right. our thanks to robert costa. thank you. still ahead on "morning joe," the president continues his outreach to red state democrats. we'll go live to the white house for a preview of tonight's bipartisan dinner. we'll also ask congressman jim

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a lot of people notice that during his interview steve bannon was actually wearing two button down shirts at the same time. is that a move? do people do this? look at this. this is real. watch what happened during the whole interview. watch this. >> the president made the wrong decision? >> i think -- i think -- >> you wanted him to go full boar. >> i think we have to focus on american citizens. >> what do you think we have to do. >> i think what we're going to do as the work permits run out, they self deport. >> nick, you were just asking.

>> why does he wear two shirts? i'm all for it. you want to wear two shirts, i think that's cool, be a trend setter. >> it's the popped collar of the alt-right. it's the move. >> i don't know. josh green asked on twitter why does steve bannon wear all his shirts at once. nick responded you get the answer, i'll dress bannon style on "morning joe." >> oh. okay. joining us from the white house, peter alexander. only wearing one shirt. >> only one today. thank god. >> yeah. >> how are you, peter? peter, the president's meeting with democrats tonight. he's continuing his outreach, his bipartisan outreach. what can you tell us? >> reporter: i was going to say steve bannon should wear the popped up double collars to the hamptons and see how that goes. let's talk about the president's plans at the white house. there's a working dinner specifically on tax reform.

we confirmed the six senators expected, they include highly heitkamp, joe donnelly of indiana. on the bottom you see the senate finance committee chairman, pat toom toomey, john thune as well. what's notable about these democrats is that these are the three democrats that did not sign on with party leaders outlining basically what they needed to see in tax reform, the conditions for tax reform. they're the only democrats that supported neil gorsuch, and they all come from states that the president won. there may be value. the president floated the names for possible cabinet members. this is an effort to try to kick

off this conversation in real terms with the bipartisan senators on tax reform. gary cohn and steve mnuchin meeting on the hill today with mitch mcconnell and others to have this conversation. >> peter alexander, thank you very much. "the wall street journal" editorial board is calling on mark med koadows to run for spe of the house. writing if the freedom caucus is upset enough to condemn nate a leadership coup, let's get it on now. congress is entering a critical few months. force a debate and vote while there's still time to save the day. it's time for mr. meadows to step into the spotlight and take responsibility. the honorable act would be to announce an immediate challenge to mr. ryan surrounded by his supporters and the breitbart staff. lay out the strategy for passing tax reform, for raising the debt limit, and for passing the

freedom caucus budget through the house and senate this fall. then the members of the house gop conference can hold a debate and vote, and mr. meadows and the country can see how much support he has for his political strategy compared to mr. ryan. let's bring in founding member of the conservative house freedom caucus, republican congressman jim jordan of ohio. congressman, what's your reaction to the journal editorial board? >> well, first of all, it's completely inaccurate. the patriotic thing and the right thing to do is what we told the voters we were going to do. let's get focussed on election time. nobody is talking about change in leadership, and frankly, instead of the wall street journal using six unnamed sources to write something that is not accurate, and this is not the first time, why don't they call us. you know how many times they've called up mark meadows in his tenure in congress? zero. why don't you just call us?

we'll be happy to give you the truth instead of using false story after false story. this is not helping us get done what we told the american people we were going to do, and, in fact, 202 -225-6576 is our office number. i'd be happy to talk to you. >> you could set the record straight here. republicans seem to be having a hard time getting things done when the president is turning to democrats. >> and what the main argument is with the wall street journal is mark meadows and other members of the freedom caucus made some demands. they got their demands fulfilled and the second they got their demands fulfilled, they started going around attacking. is that not true? >> we made the health care bill -- bill better and 32 of 34 members of freedom caucus voted for it. we put it over the top. we made the bill better. even though i'm not a huge fan

of cbo, they said premiums would come down because of our changes. that was our objective. we didn't sop the health care bill. it was six republican senators who voted different than 18 months ago. that's the problem. let's get focussed on doing what we told the voters we were going to do on health care, on the border security wall and tax reform and tax cuts. get focussed on that and not have stories being written about those things. focus on what we were sent here to accomplish. >> mark has a question. >> how do you escape the reality that even on health care something republicans promised for even years to do, there's no bill that apparently can pass the house and senate with republican votes? how do you solve that problem on other issues? >> i think you got to keep talking. one of the best things you can do is not take a six-week break. we just took the longest august recess that's happened in a decade. the freedom caucus said don't leave town. we have to figure out what to do

to appeal obama care and cut taxes. we didn't do that. we went home for six weeks. we should have stayed here, focussed on getting done what we told the american people we were going to get done. longest nonelection year break in over a decade. that's not how you solve the problems we were sent here to solve. >> good morning. your critique of the long break, it was the republican leadership, you guys could have come together and probably changed that. i think this is part of the reason the journal may have written what they wrote this morning. around the debt saling and tax reform, you talked about the improvements to the health care bill. what's the most important thing the freedom caucus wants? >> great question. on the debt ceiling, cap spending as a percentage of gdp. get spending back down to the

modern times historic norm down around 20% or lower. right now it's almost 21%, as high as 24% gdp in the obama years. i'll vote for and increase, the debt hit 20 trillion today. how can you raise the money on the credit card borrow as much as you want without repercussion, how can you do it when you have a $20 trillion. revenue neutral is an idea with the tax burden stays the same. we're going to shift around who pays what. under that scenario, and joe knows that. under that scenario what always happens is the connected class gets a good deal and middle class families get the shaft. lower taxes for families and conduct a tax program that's

good for economic growth. >> you point out that the debt hit 20 trillion. do you support this deal that president trump made with democrats? because the debt went up in the aftermath of passing in deal with nancy pelosi. >> i voted against it. when you increase the borrowing limit, raise the limit on the credit card and do nothing to address the underlying problem, that's not good. we didn't give the president any options or choices. the choice was do you want a longer term debt ceiling increase that doesn't address the underlying problem, or do you want a shorter term debt ceiling that doesn't address the problem. that's why we said put a cap on spending. i'll raise the debt ceiling if we address the problem. i think taxpayers would prefer that. >> so congressman, final question. it's sort of out of not left

field, out of right field, i guess. should be out of center field. at what point are republican congressmen, congresswomen, senators, any democrats that actually don't deny math, are they going to start coming on the show and talking about our $20 trillion debt and unfunded liabilities instead of cutting $13 from sesame street. start looking at the entitlement crisis that is stealing money from every young person in america. when is that going to happen? i've been waiting for that to happen for 20 years. when's it going to happen? nothing else really matters fiscally. >> i'm hear talking about it because i think it's important. the american people understand t important. we had some real entitle. savings in the health care legislation. we had changes to medicaid that were going to be helpful long term to beginning to deal with the debt burden. unfortunately, that bill didn't get to the united states senate. but you're right. this is like the college-age kid

who says i want to raise the limit on the credit card even though i'm spending more than i have, and we say okay. that just does not make sense. for the future of our country, we have to deal with it. >> congressman jim jordan, thank you. coming up, why chris christie says steve bannon's have a minutes of fame is almost up. plus her front row seat to the craziest campaign in american history. katy tur's first presidential campaign happened to be donald trump's first too, and she captured it all in a new book. she's joining us next on "morning joe." ♪ so, i was at mom and dad's and found this. cd's, baseball cards...

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everybody knew it was false. there's a media group that calls the media. the next day they did a story about what a lie it was from nbc. she's back there, little katy. what a lie it was. what a lie. katy tur, what a lie it was. >> does that not give you pause?

>> no. >> to have a foreign government able to -- >> you know what gives me more pause? that a person in our government, crooked hillary clinton, be quiet. i know you want to save her. >> there's something happening. they're not reporting it. katy, you're not reporting it, katy, but there's something happening, katy. >> oh, yeah. there is. it's unbelievable. joining us now katy tur, her new book out today is "unbelievable, my front row seat to the craziest company in u.s. history". welcome. i want to go back at first. how does it look now compared to how unbelievable it was during the campaign, which we will get to, but do you see a difference? >> no. it's exactly the same. it's as unbelievable today as it was back then. >> you don't see in the past two weeks, a different trump?

>> maybe if that continues, but i think there's been a lot of disasters that have kacaptivate the attention to the american public. he hasn't had room to revert back to how he normally behaves. i don't think there's enough evidence to say that this is donald trump. >> i don't disagree. >> i'm not saying that can't happen. i'm saying whatever we've spoken about the changes in tone that he might have had, he's always gone back. >> i'm on the campaign trail, he was always calling on you and singling you out, katy tur from the mike. it's a strange and rare thing for a candidate to do that. in the course of writing the book, have you figured out why he would come specifically after you? >> i have not personally figure odd out why it was me. it started from the beginning. it could have had something to do with me being the first network correspondent that was assigned to cover him. i was the first one there taking the campaign seriously at a time

when there were headlines that said donald trump is running for president. it's going to be so hillarious. i show up at this event around the backyard pool in new hampshire, and i'm taking notes and he calls me out. he says katy tur, you're not paying attention. i had never met him. i knew him from the social scene and the tabloids, "the aparrente accounts apprentice". i did not know he knew me. >> if it was a guy who was the first reporter to cover donald trump doing everything you did, do you think it would have happened? >> i think that's a really good question. >> i don't think so. >> he did single out other male journalists along the trail. he called tom of abc a sleaze. he did it to me consistently.

i think it was push and pull. i think he expected somebody to give him more favorable coverage. i was young. maybe he thought he could change the -- change my coverage, make it more favorable to him. maybe he thought he could intimidate me. the reality is if he knew anything about me, anything at all, one quick google search, you'd find out it's not easy to intimidate me. >> i'm a little bit upset with you this morning, because my kindle download of the book came right around midnight last night and kept me up way too late. it's a real page turner. >> good. >> starting with the first line which i -- i'm about to throw up. >> i feel the same way with the launch right now. >> can you talk about that? >> if you read one of the line book, t not a political commentary. this is not me saying i'm about

to throw up because somebody from a particular party won and i am not of that party. it was a commentary on what had happened in that last year and a half. i covered him for 500 days. 50 da 500 days of being on the road and not only having to understand what he was saying but also hold up facts. he did not tell the truth on the campaign. his supporters were extraordinarily angry. it was a surreal and unbelievable experience, and it seemed at that point that it was never going to end. a lot of us felt like we didn't have solid ground to stand on. we didn't know how to cover this any longer. we didn't know what mattered what we said. >> when did you get the sense trump could win the election, and did you ever call that? >> i got the sense -- i will say the first interview i did with him, he came after me and he said you could never be president. and the first thing i thought many my head was neither can

you. luckily i didn't say that at the time. but i thought that -- and i think this was part of the reason this worked so well is because i wasn't a washington or political person. i was able to see his support and the devotion that he found himself getting. for what it was, very early on without any predispositions or preconceived notions. when we went after john mccain, an american war hero, you can see the conservative party wasn't so happy with john mccain here and there, but this was an american war hero who was a p.o.w. when he went after him and his poll numbers went up, nothing else is sacred. he can go after anything. >> mark halperin, last question. >> katy tur, congratulations. who should buy this book? >> anybody who is waking up and wondering is this real life? anybody who is trying to figure out what happened the past year and a half. why his support was so devoted

and then also for those who are just curious about what it was like day in and day out. it's darkly comic at times and i think most people would find it enjoyable, even the president. >> katy tur, thank you very much. the new book is out today. it's "unbelievable" my first row seat to the craziest campaign in american history. katy, thank you. congratulations. up next the aftermath on hurricane irma. some 2000 people are in shelters in florida. and it may take weeks to restore power around the state. plus we'll check in with kerry sanders who while covering his 60th hurricane found time to return two dolphins of the water. he joins us next.

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christie is responds to stephen bannon's claim that he lost his chance to the surf in the trump administration for a lack of loyalty, after the president's comments about grabbing women. on that infamous "access hollywood" tape. here's what bannon said followed by christie's response to pbs news last night. >> you took names on billy -- didn't you? >> you know i'm irish, i got my black book and i got 'em. christie because of billy bush weekend was not looked at for a cabinet position. >> he wasn't there for you on billy bush weekend, therefore, he doesn't get a cabinet position. >> i told him the plane leaves at 11:00 in the morning. if you're on the plane, you're on the team. didn't make the plane. >> that conversation that mr. bannon references in his interview, never happened. never had any conversations with him. i didn't need to convey those kind of feelings to staffers.

i was speaking to the principal, the man now president of the united states. second, i was there the whole billy bush weekend. i was there leading debate prep for the second debate both friday and saturday. and by the way, if i was off the team why did i lead debate prep for the third debate? third, i was offered accountant positions for this president. it's been wildly reported it's true that i offered cabinet positions that i turned down so i suspect this little black book that mr. bannon is talking about, the only one who read that little black book is mr. bannon himself. >> i don't even know where to begin. >> pop some popcorn, neighbor? >> yeah -- is he okay? i don't think he's okay? >> bannon on the outside now. chris christie on the outside now. neither of them actually ended up inside the administration. i'm curious what happened after chris christie leaves the governorship if he has a zone to go to. >> right. but it's fascinating kind of

watch them duke it out after the fact while they're both basically been pushed to the inner circle. >> yeah, he doesn't seem okay. >> it seems from watching that interview and the excerpts from the extra excerptses that they released. is steve bannon such an individual contributor, it's unclear why he wouldn't last -- also, chris christie was right about the billy bush tape. it was terrible. >> he was there. >> president trump apologized. >> yeah, correct. i mean -- quite an ax to grind still at this point. >> yes. >> chris christie. >> yes. >> why go back and relitigate it at this point especially when chris christie -- >> i think that's what i find striking. he's holding on tight. he seems so angry. god, dude, get over it. not okay. a lot of not okay going on. we'll go live to the florida

keys as thousands of residents who rode out the storm there may need to be rescued. and the u.s. virgin islands reports this morning the president may visit there in the days to come. and "the new york times" jeremy peters with his report on donald trump perhaps clearing the way for a third political party. "morning joe" is coming right back. what powers the digital world. communication. that's why a cutting edge university counts on centurylink to keep their global campus connected.

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and south battery. we've got people walking along the wall which is one of the dumbest things you can do right now. the water is coming along the wall in the past couple of hours, it's only getting worse as high tide continues to come in. i mentioned earlier, i've been through a few hurricanes and was not expecting this today. the water is going to actually come up into downtown charleston. if i can have my photographer show you right here, it's almost as if the ocean has come into downtown charleston, this is incorrect. there's not even a way to drive through this area. good morning, it's tuesday, september 12th. >> did you see them walking up there? >> no, welcome to "morning joe," the entire state of florida this morning, we're just beginning to get a sense of the damage left behind by hurricane irma as the storm continues its assault on the southeast. it has weakened to a

post-tropical cyclone. millions in florida, georgia and south carolina are without power. and many are cut off from their homes. in jacksonville, entire streets were swallowed by record flooding as heavy rain and storm surge hit the city. the mayor and local authorities asked people to hang white flags outside of their homes as a signal for help. everglades city remains largely under water at this point. as of yesterday, the main road in and out of everglades city was still impassible for anything but a big truck or boat. and much of the florida keys remain cut off at the mainland, as the national guard deploy search and rescue missions. hurricane irma made landfall sunday morning bringing 140-mile-per-hour winds. and as many as 10,000 people who decided to stay and ride out the storm may need to be evacuated. at least 8.8 million people

without power across florida. authorities say residents should be prepared to stay for extended outages including weeks without power in some cases. once irma made it past the storm, it made its way to south carolina and georgia. and elsewhere, there was serious flooding, river streets, tourist haven in savannah, saw the savannah spill its banks into the streets, usually bustling with stores and restaurants. and charlesston which is usually prone to washouts because of its ancient drainage system saw its iconic market area downtown under water. let's start with a check with the latest on irma from meteorologist bill karins. >> the first time since 48 hours since landfall, we're not seeing irma doing any more damage. we're calling it a post-tropical system. there's still bands here in eastern north carolina.

we'll watch out for isolated flooding there. but again no longer tracking the storm as it's now post-patrol. the remnants will head up to western tennessee and not cause any issues. the another correspondents are spreading across the region to the hardet hit regions. let's go to gadi schwartz. gadi is right near the eye where the cat 4 made landfall in cudjoe key. gadi, what's it look like today? >> reporter: these are some of the first images we're able to get back. this is ground zero for where the hurricane hit. this is what irma did. you see the winds whipped through this home. this is called jolly roger road. but you see, that's a washing machine over here. as you take a look there are two other, a washer and dryer here. showing you how strong the winds were. here's another one. over here, in the marina, if we take a quick little walk, there

are coaches floating in this marina.s floating in this marina. and there are boats on their side. we've got a drone flying overhead. most of the homes are concrete. they're still standing, there are some exceptions, obviously. but those seem to be wooden structures. the concrete structures that we've seen don't seem to have very much structural damage. it's mostly railings and sidings torn off and there's heavy roof damage. when it comes to withstanding the storms even houses close to the bay that took the direct impact are still standing here. residents are not being allowed back here right now. there are some residents who chose to weather out the storm. they are going house to house, checking to make sure everybody cleared out. and there's no one there. right now, we're still waiting for emergency crews to come through and do the checks as well.

back to you. >> gadi, when you look around, can you see how high the storm surge was, you can look at the trees to see what levels on many houses? >> reporter: from what we've been told, around here, we don't see any clear water marks what we've been told around here, it was three or four feet. there are some of these houses that actually have basements. those were flooded out. things floated to the top and made their way out. this is maybe ten feet up from the sea. another three or four feet above that where all the debris field came out. that's 14 feet from the surge. one of the things that mariners keep on insisting they dodged a bullet because this came when tides were low. if this would have come during high tide, things would have been absolutely catastrophic. fortunately, that water was able to subside. we've also seen video water going up and coming down pretty rapidly throughout the storm. particularly, during the eye of the storm. most of this was completely

under water. mariners thanking the tides and the timing of the storms saying that's why we're not seeing wider devastation. >> gadi schwartz from the lower keys. that's where the center of the landfall. very impressive stuff. further in the keys in south florida, two days ago, marco island, this is a picture yesterday from kerry sanders. this is his live shot. that was the baby dolphin that was stranded on the beach, live tv. it was iffy for a little bit. we weren't sure what was going to happen. kerry came in and helped the animal that was in distress. and does what he does best. the internet went ablaze, too. kerry, you're joining us from marco island in florida. any further reports on that dolphin, or any others you helped save or others on the coast? >> reporter: well, i can tell you that the baby dolphin was exhausted. it was found initially by mark

long, one of the residents here, about half a mile in. it was on a sidewalk. he took the dolphin and brought it down to the water's edge here. that's where we met him and helped him and eventually, i took the baby dolphin out into the gulf of mexico. exhausted as you can imagine. it had been out of the water for who knows how long. it got washed in with the storm surge three or four feet. then when it went out, the dolphin was left high and dry. the problem is the wave action. we have a drone shot up right now. the waves are really calm. yesterday, it was really rougher, it was certainly tough for that little guy to make it out there. eventually took it all the way out past a couple of wave breaks. held it for 10, 15 minutes, seemed to catch its breath. let it go. it started to go out, a wave hit. eventually helped it out. we felt really good. went up the beach a while later, sure enough, bill, came across a much larger dolphin.

that took a group of us to get it out there. much more difficult. we eventually gotta dolphin into the deeper area of the gulf of mexico to release that dolphin. she made it, too. if i could write the story, i'd like to think this is the baby to that being the mother. they reunited. as we look at the live picture in the gulf of mexico that somewhere they're out there together. >> that was pretty awesome, kerry. a great moment. we know you're all fearful how badly that area got the storm surge. you caught a break there. kerry sanders coming to us from marco island. appreciate your work. 142-mile-per-hour wind right where kerry was. standing now, he was in the middle of that during the storm. that's pretty incredible stuff. everyone has been asking what is next. you may have heard there's hurricane jose on the heels of irma. it's still sitting here. this is florida. it's not that far away. it's going to do a loopty loop.

it's going to spin and come back up. it does take it as a hurricane and almost brings that cone of uncertainty into areas of eastern north carolina. the thing that i'm happy to say, all of our long-range computers take it and take it back out to sea. this would be large surf, rip currents but not a storm on the east coast. still four or five days to watch that. we need a break after the two category 4 storms, first that have ever happened in our country. back to you. bill, thank you. back with us around the table with have mike barnicle. howard ford jr., co-founder of axis, june banderhi. and richard haass. and mark halperin in washington. a lot of politics to talk about. let's talk about the interview ousted white house advice steve

bannon gave to "60 minutes." cbs running the bulk of it, of course, on sunday night. perhaps the most interesting part of the sit-down was material they left for a web extra. bannon said president trump's decision to fire fbi director james comey is by far trump's most damaging self-inflicted wound. >> someone said to me you that described the firing of james comey, given the history, as the biggest mistake in political history? >> that would be probably -- that's probably would be too bombastic for even me but maybe modern political history. i don't think there's any doubt if james comey had not been fired that we'd have a special counc counsel. >> so we'd not have the mueller investigation? >> he'd not have the mueller investigation. i don't believe that the institutional logic of the fbi,

in particular, in regards to an investigation could possibly change by changing out the head of it. >> it has been reported that jared kushner was in favor of firing james comey. is that correct? >> i have -- you guys will have to find that out either through the media or your investigation, i don't know. >> however, bannon would not say directly whether he himself was against firing comey out respect for private conversations instead, pointed to media reports that he was opposed. when asked about bannon's criticism, white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders stood firmly behind the president's decision. >> certainly, i think it's been shown in the days that followed that the president was right in firing director comey since director's firing. we've learned new information about his conduct that only provided further justification for that firing, including give false testimony, leaking

privileged information to journalists. he went outside the chain of command and politicized an investigation about a presidential candidate. >> so, mark, it's hard to tell exactly who steve bannon's comments were aimed at. perhaps if not the president, jared kushner who also was reportedly the only other person other than the president in support of firing james comey. i thought it also was interest that steve bannon said he would be against the firing of nobody, probably for the same reasons, correctly against the firing of james comey. what's it all mean? >> well, look, there are a lot of similarities between bannon and trump. i think one thing -- two things that they share. one is they like to become -- they like to be seen as smart political analysts. i think a lot of what bannon said in that interview was his view of the truth. and i think a lot of reporters would agree that the president's decision to fire comey, the way he fired him, in particular, was

a big mistake. the other thing about bannon and trump that they share that i think sometimes overrated they're both ideological in a sense but at times practical. they don't roll boulders uphill if they don't think they can get to the top of the hill in most cases. again, a lot of what bannon said in that interview reflects as being realistic. at times, he's far from realistic, but a realism that he shared with the president in some cases. >> and jim, again, you have only two people, we get these reports in realtime. we didn't have to see steve bannon talk about this on "60 minutes" to know this was the case, the only people for the firing of james comey for the way he was fired was donald trump and jared kushner. >> no doubt. and there was lots of tension between bannon and kushner, at that point, the breaking point in their relationship. >> bannon said okay, you're where you are with mueller,

mr. president, because you listened to jared kushner. >> i'm one of the reporters who would agree with what bannon said. it was one of the dumbest -- now not only do you have mueller, you have mueller looking at obstruction of justice around the firing of james comey. it's one of the reasons mike pence had to hire a lawyer. it's why six or seven officials had to hire lawyers because they were around those conversations around that time. maybe donald trump wasn't covering up something by firing him. but there's so many conversations that he had with people about the investigation around that time, about his investigation with comey, and that's where mueller is intensely focused at this moment. and it could be problematic. it could ended presidency. still ahead, with more bucking the party, is the republican party on the verge of

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a new report claims that lawyers representing president trump in the russia probe wanted his son-in-law jared kushner to step down. as senior adviser earlier this summer. "the wall street journal" cites some anonymous people familiar with it, said some of the legal team worried about complications from the special counsel russia probe. it was with the dealings of the transition team and people, some examined by federal investigators and congress. also included, kushner's admission of contacts with the foreign security which he omitted twice. and the probe even casually in a

meeting, aides who heard his remarks could face inquiries from robert mueller's agents. and there was reportedly concern that kushner might discussion the probe without a lawyer present. the lawyer claims that press aides from the legal team went as far as drafting a statement to explain his resignation. but now he says he thought the proposal absurd and that it was never, to his knowledge, taken to the president. now marc kasowitz who led the team until july said i never discussed with other lawyers for the president that yajared kushr to step down and i'm not aware that any other lawyers made such recommendations. >> okay, all of the president's lawyers are denying it. but mike barnicle -- >> they've denied a lot. >> this is kind of like sending inappropriate e-mails.

>> yeah, and curse words. >> so, mike, this is something talked about for some time in the white house, jared kushner, it would be much better if even jar jared kushner and everybody in the white house if he would go back to new york and because of things in the transition. >> never mind what they're blogging about jared kushner, just the public paper trail of jared, 660 madison avenue, for the building that he's been trying to refinance for some time now. that's just one item. the other item is who has he spoken to with these difficulties, from the meeting with donald trump jr., with the j woman from russia, to talking to the president when he was president. i mean, what was going on here. everybody having to lawyer up after they talked to jarod

skusher iskus kushner. >> well, harrold, he's not good with disclosure. and people he's met. and donald trump basically saying you're basically in charge of everything. go off, you're in charge of redoing government. and of course, the guy is going 24 hours a day. i'm not making any excuses for him. i'm just saying it was just sheer chaos. and chaos, a lot of stuff was overlooked. a lot of stuff that has very dire complications legally. >> i don't know of a campaign in history, sand riand richard can perspective on this that had repeated conversations to russian government officials. i cannot make a benign issue in the campaign, and i could be wrong, i'd love to hear the facts and we're going to hear

that through mueller's investigation. to your point, joe, i don't know how you forget that many meetings. >> you don't forget them. >> or just omit them. >> you don't forget them. you know, i met with somebody from chad like at a cocktail party four months ago, i might have forgotten that. nothing against chad, but it's not in the newspaper every day, right? but you have russia come to the front pages of the newspaper during the campaign, if people are accusing russia of trying to steal the election, if afterwards, you get a national security visor, it's going to be a national security adviser in trouble because he didn't report what he needs. and just to say, we learned more about russia, you would have been sitting through a james bond movie. you don't forget that.

>> these are difficult things to forget. >> it was several dozen contexted breaches. in addition, mike pence was lied to by mike flynn by russia. at the end of the day. >> so i will say, reinforced at this point, on september 12th, 2017, mike pence tells us, he was lied to. >> that's about russia. >> and from now, anytime somebody says mike pence is lied to, if we don't want to look really stupid in the future, we should say, mike pence says he was lied to. >> he was lied to. >> you know, you put your finger in on part of this solving the evasion with regard to jared kushner. and a lot else. in the sense when they had the meetings as they were talking with whomever from russia they didn't think they were going to win. they did not think they were going to win.

they didn't think this would be any issue. >> okay. >> they cash in on the moment of fame for president and figure out how to get themselves in trouble. >> out of financial trouble. again, not that we have any working knowledge on this. everybody now knows 666 fifth avenue is under water. they need money. they've been going around hat in hand, trying to get money. chance are very good. they didn't think they were going to win and were going around making contacts. donald trump wanted to build a really big building in moscow. i don't blame him, he's a developer. but not in the middle of campaign. coming up on "morning joe," ambassador nikki haley discusses north korea. but were they too toothless to actually stop the north korea program. we'll talk about that with richard haass next on "morning joe." what started as a passion

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thought as as watered down. it doesn't include a ban on all oil imports and international asset of which both russia and china objected to. what does it doey it bans pyongyang from importing natural gas and caps crude imports. and still, here's what u.s. ambassador nikki haley told the council yesterday. >> these are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on north korea. they give us a much better chance to halt the regime's ability to fuel and finance the nuclear and missile programs. but we all know these steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively. >> so much of with nikki haley, do you agree with that with sanctions on the u.n.? >> the tougher sanctions posed against north korea, they won't make any difference. >> they won't make any difference? >> no, for all sorts of reasons.

they're watered down. even if you have the oil cut off they could liquiwhy goal. how russia in "the washington post," how russia filling in some of the gaps that china has left. but north korea's entire psychology, the desire dna society is one of self-reliance. so, the idea that you're going to sanction them for giving up some of the most important assets they have for the regime's survival, ain't going to happen. >> so, richard, it just sounds like you don't say, and by the way, sigh agree with you, others do not, that we don't have a thousand different options. there is not a third way. by me saying that, i'm not saying i'm for the military option. but i am saying you're either for north korea having the ability to strike seattle, san francisco and los angeles, with nuclear weapons. in the next year or two.

or you're for military intervention. to take the weapons away or change the regime? i mean, it seems to me, the sooner we get to that with all due respect, you know, others that came on this show back in 2009, talking about all of the glorious things that were going to happen in afghanistan if we tripled the number of troops, you knew it was garbage back then. you knew it would be a holding pattern. and it will be in a holding pattern. here, there is no neat, clean third way. >> there is not a third way and the time line of north korea in nuclear advance is far faster than the time line of any impact with sanctions kicking in. so, we're kidding ourselves if we think what's going on at the u.n. is somehow going to solve this problem. >> will the chinese ever step in? >> they will step in in part. but not enough. china will not step in to the point that the they risk

destabilizati destabilization. >> what it china means we will go in militarily, what that then mean -- if they understand that the united states was coming in military, if they didn't act, would china then act and remove him? >> i don't believe so. i think they would try to manage the situations. they'd have certain limits of what they'd be willing to sit aside for. but, no, i don't think at the end of the day -- >> so china would rather us be in there militarily than take out a guy who is destabilizing the whole region? it would be like us wanting the chinese to come into mexico? >> the idea that china has this option that you're talking about to somehow get rid of one leadership and put in one to their liking they don't believe, as far as i can tell they have that option. >> richard, richard, richard, you don't believe that a country that controls 90% of the imports to north korea and gets 90% of

their exports, you don't think they have every general and leader around that guy bought and paid for, and could rid of him tomorrow if they wanted to? >> proof that they don't, getting kim jong-un assassinated. china is very frustrated what about they can't control in north korea. this is a typical relationship between unequals where the chinese disguise north koreans, they see them as a strategic liability, not an asset. they cannot control what goes on there. coming up on "morning joe," we're waiting big updates from apple. and apparently, ted cruz likes porn -- >> what? >> he likes it. he likes it. that's kind of a mean tease. >> that's a mean tease.

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there has been a divide in this administration from the beginning. it's quite obvious. there's one group of people that on the campaign, by the way, it's all basically the campaign, some additional came on that said, all you have to do is do what you said you were going to do in these major areas. let's punch out one thing after the other. you're going to keep your coalition together. and we're going to add to it over time as you're successful. there's another group that has said, let's compromise, let's try to reach out to democrats. and let's try to work on things that we can do together. >> you were isolated inside the white house? >> that's not absolutely true. i was still -- i had the same influence on the president i had on day one. >> we're back with mark halperin, mike barnicle, and joining me now, "the new york times" reporter jeremy peters. jeremy, you're reporting that president trump is clearing an opening, intentionally or not, for a new party.

jeremy. >> right, steve bannon was speaking exactly to that split in the party that's now been years and years in the making. and it's more than just the kind of leadership, washington ruling class, versus the renegade antagonistic, anti-establishment types. i mean, this is basically a fight for whether or not the ideas that donald trump ran on, these kind of nationalistic, populistic, america first ideas are sustainable and have a place in american politics going forward. now, i think part of the problem is, and this is what steve bannen is kind of sorting out over the next few months, is donald trump the leader of that movement. does he continue to have the role he's had in leading the voters who got behind him? >> right. >> i don't think that's a guarantee. and i think steve bannon realizes that's not a guarantee. so, kind of building out what remains of that movement, keeping it sustainable is a big

question going forward. >> so, mark halperin, the republican party is divided right now. so the democratic party. only difference is the republican party owns everything in washington,d.c.. is this more of the same? or does donald trump become the first independent president we've had since washington? >> the republican water had great years below the presidential years was mostly successful. but it's turn out to be an anti-obama party. it's been a failure for the first eight months of republican rule. and the issue where the president differs from the orthodoxy of the republican party, trade in particular. maybe on tax cuts, maybe on government spending like infrastructure. on those things i think the president is right, where there is a constituency for some of his views it may not be a majority in many cases but there's a constituency.

and it's up to other people in the republican party to not just be an anti-trump party which a lot of members of congress are privately and publicly. what do they stand for, they're actually better ideas to fit the brand. >> right, this past week showed that so many of donald trump's voters are trumpists. they're not republicans. they're not conservative voters. they're trumpists first. you can see that with the strongest supporters, even after he struck a deal with nancy pelosi. and chuck schumer, they almost uniformly blame mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, not donald trump. that should have sent a message to donald trump that he's got as much running room as he needs. >> yeah, so pick your numbers is it 22%, 32%, trump voters only? if you're likening them, that specific trump block to the blocks of ice removed from the

polar ice cap from noble waglob warming, cutting them off from the basic ice floe, what is happening to the political system in this country? >> it's blowing apart. and on both sides. >> in a new interview, senator majority leader mitch mcconnell says he will have the last laugh on the debt ceiling deal. mcconnell tells "the new york times" that he wrote the deal to invoke extraordinary measures that would allow the country to shift the need and delay the need for increase in the debt limit well below the december deadline. speaking for the democrats, he said, they might have spiked the ball in the end zone a little too early. >> but if you're in the end zone, you still scored a touchdown. >> i mean, look, the debt ceiling debate to me is kind of a nondebate. >> yeah. >> and i'm not sure it's a very meaningful moment, even though

it seems like one. it's congress voting to authorize to pay the bills that congress has already done. >> right. but if it had not done that deal, we would all have our -- and people would be coming on the air this morning going, and the greatest responsibility they have, to pay off debt. they're not even doing. this is a shame! >> i've heard it nonstop. >> joe, all i'm saying is -- >> this is the shame of washington. now, they got it done and everybody saying this is not a big deal. >> but we would have had to talk about the budget. we would have debated are there any priorities are there actually spending cuts. >> i'm saying it's a deal that does not require the democrats to move our their principles on any given way and it's a deal that's possible. they need three more deals like that. >> and republicans are going this is terrible because now the democrats are going to get daca for free.

donald trump wants that. so, it's good for donald trump, again. >> yes. >> so how long are the republicans going to keep going, oh, no, now -- and then it's an infrastructure deal. i don't know, maybe i'm wrong alise, but it seems like donald trump wants to be responsible for something that 80% of americans like with daca. that's all republicans say. oh, no, now, he get a clean shot at daca. >> well, he also is going to get a clean shot at spending a lot of money it looks like, too. >> right. >> you know, with infrastructure, and then with tax reform are republicans going to go for tax form that isn't debt neutral? >> oh -- >> of course, they are. >> that is why -- >> exactly. it's not going to end. >> what do you think happened during the bush administration? medicare part d. >> does that mean we should keep doing it? >> no, it doesn't mean we should keep doing it. everybody knew that donald trump was a big spending republican.

i wrote columns about it. we talked about it nonstop on this show for the past 18 months. anybody that is surprised that donald trump is a big spending republican? and that's where he wants to go, that he sees himself like a teddy roosevelt. like this big -- bigger than life, bigger than washington figure that's not going to sit around with congressman jordan going, how do we shave point 2%, 3%, off of discretionary growth in outyears? that's not what he's going to do. >> no. and conservatives' worst fears were confirmed all last week when he went and cut this deal with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. he didn't have the convictions of a purist. they looked at they would get a little here and there. know i think it's exacerbating the split that has made the

conditions for a third party, for a real rupture in the gop so ripe right now. because they just cannot -- both sides of the equation here will never be able to see eye for eye, they haven't for nine years? >> i don't mean to sound cynical mike barnicle, but there would be a rupture in the republican party if there were still conservatives in the republican party that cared about balances but when george w. bush went in there was a surplus, by the time he left a deficit. $5.6 trillion national debt when he left. republicans have doubled it. they haven't cared about small government since we balanced the budget back in 2001. >> well, jim jordan from the freedom caucus was on earlier. that's what he said, you have to balance the budget and reduce costs but mark halperin, with that thought in mind, the big issue with the president and tax

reform, got to passion a budget before you get to the intricacies of tax reform. and in passing the budget, they're now confronted with two things that they weren't confronted a month ago -- texas and florida. the hurricane caused some damage. so what happens now? >> well, because they're red states. i think we'll see more republicans inclined to not worry about offsets, not try to pay for all of the new spending but in the context of the budget deal, a lot of that is symbolically important. and people have very big decisions to make. and joe keeps suggesting and accurately, this is not a president who is going to have green eye shades on saying where can i cut this thing? he's going to want to get a deal. and if the deal involves democratic support it's going to be big spending and the members who have a conception they've got a republican president who wants to fight for lower taxes and less spending they're not going have an eye on the white house. i will tell you again, the

institutional republican party, the kay street lobbyists, the heritage foundation, most of the republicans their in a bygone era, they're in a fantasy world for what the republican stood for in eight years of barack obama. that's not what it stands for. the symbol is a different cat. he's a different beast and he's not on their agenda. and they're largely powerless to compete with him on the playing field. >> all right, now, the most important story of the day, right? >> yeah. >> what story is that? >> survey after midnight last night, the twitter account of senator ted cruz -- >> oh, come on -- >> -- it's not that important. why did he do this? can someone else -- >> mike, you read that. >> i don't want to know that. >> shortly after twitter last night, the twitter account of ted cruz liked an extremely explicit posted at the account @sexual posts. to like the two-minute long

video within minutes cruz's like went viral on social media. according to the verge cruz's account unfazed cruz spokesman offensive tweet posted open the ted cruz account earlier has been removed by staff and reported to twitter. as you may recall, this isn't the first time cruz and his staff have crossed pathings with adult interstate. back during his presidential campaign, everyone remembers that, cruz released an ad hitting marco rubio over immigration. there was just one problem. it was soon revealed the woman who delivered the key line in the spot was a former adult film actress. the campaign later -- >> former, come on, former. >> saying the actress responded to an open casting call and was not vetted by the production call. they later pulled the ad -- >> i just got past. >> all right. >> i'm bored. >> yeah, we're bored. >> hey, it happens. >> okay, alex, if you think there's a most important part of

the story -- >> we're going to have you take a little vacation, okay? >> the actress in question later endorsed donald trump, but that's -- all right, let's talk about important things. i really wish we had not read all of that. >> yeah. >> the dodgers, again, they were playing -- >> it seemed funny this morning. >> and they lost. the dodgers lost 11 games. this is "sports illustrated" called them the best team ever. >> yes. >> just a month and a half ago. >> and the indians won their 19th game in a row. >> the indians a couple games away from setting the all-time record. >> two games away. tie at 20 and break it at 21. >> so they play tonight. do indians play tonight? and they're playing the tigers? who's pitching? kluber. okay. >> why does he know all that? >> that's another "w." jeremy, thank you. i got to ask mike this question. >> really? >> it has nothing to do with ted cruz. what do you think is the more extraordinary story, and i'm serious here. is it the indians winning 19 in

a row or is it the dodgers that were on pace to be one of the greatest baseball teams of all time, collapsing and losing what, 15 out of 16, losing 11 in a row? >> yeah, my thing is there's nothing more interesting than the loser's locker room so i vote -- i would vote for the dod dodgers collapsing. >> how could this happen? >> who know, it's baseball. >> who knows. >> up first, first, the class action lawsuit, now regulators and lawmakers are getting involved in the major equifax data breach. that story's ahead. keep it on morning joe. this is not a cloud. this is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, helping keep shoppers safe. this is a financial transaction secure from hacks and threats others can't see. this is a skyscraper whose elevators use iot data and ai to help thousands get to work safely and efficiently.

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all right, let's bring in cnbc's sara eisen live at the new york stock exchange. sara, big news in the apple world today. >> as always, there's a lot of hype going into these big apple unveils but today's is generating even more buzz and for good reason. that is because apple this afternoon is set to unveil three new versions of the iphone including what is set to be called the iphone x which is the tenth anniversary. the others will be upgrades of the 7 from last year. the focus is on that new high end one. number one, because it's supposed to be priced at around $1,000 which is substantially higher than other iphones. it's supposed to have new

features. getting rid of the home button for instance. being able to unlock it with facial recognition instead. a whole new display. wireless charging. so clearly there have been a lot of leaks in today's unveil. but still this is a company, the most profitable and biggest in the world, where two-thirds of sales are still iphones so this is the key product to watch. also wanted to bring you the latest on this mind-boggling equifax disaster. where 143 million american's sensitive information including potentially social security numbers were compromised. leaders of the senate finance committee are now demanding answers and details as to how this happened and specifically also asking about those executives, including the cfo, that sold stock after the breach was uncovered but before it was released publicly. and that's not all. eric schneiderman, of course, new york state attorney general, is all over this. the sec and the new york -- and the federal trade commission are also expected to open

investigations. we're also expecting a lot of class action lawsuits. equifax stock continues to fall as, guy, the question and the outrage around this continues to build. >> cnbc's sara eisen, thank you. >> let's go to our all things apple desk and mark halperin. the iphone x what say you, sir? >> $1,000. >> more than a phone. more than a smart phone. it's a way of life. >> do you know anything about this other than you're excited and you buy all new apple products? >> i always just care about the camera upgrade and the faster processor. all the other stuff, whatever so yeah, i mean, i've been saving up and i'm prepared to pay what -- pay any price, bear any burden to get it. >> are you going to stand in line -- >> you can't blame him. it's not a rational thing. >> am i going to stand in line? no, i'll do what i do for most things in life that i want that are difficult to get. i'm going to rely on mark barnacle. >> mark barnacle?

>> i'm going to get one from mark. i'm just afraid that the iphone x with the facial recognition aspect, that i might scare the phone, you know -- >> what if we're playing outdoor hockey in newton and we're wearing ski masks? >> that would be a problem. i'm actually trying to move away from phones as much as possible. putting them in drawers as much as possible. reading books again. >> i think that's a great idea. i wish that they would make an iphone that is cost effective. you just know they can. you know they can make one for -- >> can they? >> yes. >> for the people. a people's iphone. >> yes, what about the apple watch though? >> how about make one that doesn't break? anyone have that? does anyone use the apple watch? >> i tried it, it was totally -- >> i have. >> you guys are ridiculous. >> do you still have it on? >> i have one. like everybody else, you use it for a couple months. >> then you don't. >> waste of money.

>> what is that, a -- >> i think it's two or three models ago and it's served me well and i'm going to stick with it. >> it's an ipod. >> make an iphone that doesn't break, okay, worry about that. stop charging so much. that does for us this morning. stephanie picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks so much, mika. i'm stephanie ruhle. we're in the dark or at least 5 million people are without power after irma and now it's the flooding that is threatening thousands in the u.s. >> i did not expect to see this at all. like, okay, flooding, okay. no big deal. but these were waves. i was like, is this the owiceanr a river? >> more republican retirements and talk of retirement. is the house up for grabs? is the senate safe for republicans? >> i'm worried about losing the house now because of doca. >> after that bombshell interview with steve bannon in which he declares war on the republican establishment. the so-called establishment